Mike Shanahan wasn’t just the coach of the Broncos for 14 seasons. Counting his time as an assistant, he was a member of the Denver coaching staff for 21 years.

And Shanahan didn’t just win back-to-back Super Bowls with the Broncos. He helped lead the team to five Super Bowls — three in defeat as an assistant, two in victory in the 1997 and 1998 seasons. Those are the only NFL championships in franchise history.

Shanahan hung around for another decade until he was fired as Broncos coach after the 2008 season. He took a year off to re-energize and is now in his fourth season as the coach of the Washington Redskins.

Shanahan returns to Sports Authority Field at Mile High on Sunday, when the Broncos host the Redskins.

“I’m not looking forward to playing the Broncos, because they’re playing at a very high level,” Shanahan said Wednesday during a conference call with Denver media. “But I am looking forward to going back to Denver. It’s been home for me. A lot of great friends still there. It’s just something you look forward to. The fans are great. They’re the best, because they’re so into it, just like they are right now with the Broncos. You can feel the excitement in the air.”

Does he expect Broncos fans to greet him with boos or cheers?

“I hope they don’t boo me,” he said. “I don’t think I did anything wrong to get booed. I didn’t leave; they fired me.”

Even with Shanahan outliving the shelf life of a typical NFL head coach by several years, his firing was surprising at the time. Even with the 2008 Broncos blowing a three-game lead in the AFC West with three games to play, they seemed to be trending upward.

Quarterback Jay Cutler and wide receiver Brandon Marshall made the Pro Bowl as third-year pros. The offensive line was anchored by young Ryan Clady and Chris Kuper. And third-year defensive end Elvis Dumervil was just about to have a breakout season.

Then again, Shanahan won only one playoff game in the 10 years after his “Mastermind” run from 1997-98.

“I think you always look back at a couple things we could have done differently,” Shanahan said. “But I think we were building a football team — after we lost that (AFC) championship game (in the 2005 season), we decided to go in a new direction with the quarterback and we started to change the pulse of the football team. I thought we had a very young, talented offensive football team. And defensively we lost a number of starters, and I think the next year after I left, (defensive coordinator) Mike Nolan came in and they were (seventh) in defense. I felt like they were positioned at that time to be a good football team.”

The Redskins are bringing a 2-4 record to Denver. The Broncos are 6-1.

Mike Klis was with The Denver Post from Jan. 1, 1998 before leaving in 2015 to join KUSA 9News. He covered the Rockies and Major League Baseball until the 2005 All-Star break, when he was asked to start covering the Broncos.

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